10 Things You Need to Know About: Bioshock Infinite

Today we're taking a closer look at one of the biggest releases to hit this year, and the first true sequel to the 2007 hit Bioshock.

While Bioshock 2 was created by 2K Marin, 2K China and others, Irrational Games (2K Boston at the time Bioshock was originally released) have been working on Bioshock: Infinite ever since 2007.

The game casts aside the claustrophobic underwater city of Rapture for the hovering city of Columbia.

Instead of the Big Daddy and Little Sister dynamic of the first game, Columbia has one lone 'lamb', a girl called Elizabeth, who is protected (read: held captive) by a creature known as Songbird. The setup is entirely different to the first game here, as Elizabeth is a companion to the main protagonist for much of the game.

The protagonist is an ex-Pinkerton agent named Booker DeWitt.

The setting this time around isn't designed to satirise and critique 1960s objectivism and the works of Ayn Rand, instead being placed in 1912 and 'celebrating' American Exceptionalism.

The player will travel around the city on foot and along skyrails using a rotating hook, allowing for fast and frenetic gameplay.

Bioshock (2007) won the BAFTA for 'best game;, and series creator Ken Levine was recently recorded giving a Q&A at BAFTA, talking about Bioshock Infinite.

While it doesn't continue the direct storyline of the original game, Infinite keeps stylistically and thematically quite close to the series' roots.

The game will feature a '1999 Mode', setting the difficulty way up and making some decisions irreversible, likening the game to Ken Levine's earlier work on System Shock 2.

Bioshock Infinite is out tomorrow on PS3 and 360 (AUD$89.95 or NZD$99.95) and PC (AUD$79.95 or NZD$89.95).

MCV Pacific is a digital venture from NewBay Media, the UK publishing company behind the world's leading video game b2b brand, MCV. Mcvpacific.com provides essential news, data, opinion and analysis for every industry professional in the Asia-Pacific region. It is aimed at publishers, distributors, retailers, developers, service companies, trade bodies, media and more.